Within the first hour of trading, the benchmark VN-Index had shot up 9 points after opening at 864.47 opening, before gradually rising another 5.2 points over the rest of the day.

The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), Vietnam’s main bourse on which the VN-Index is based, saw 286 tickers gaining and 99 losing. Total trading volume was VND7.35 trillion ($315.92 million), making Monday one of the busiest trading sessions so far this year.

The VN30-Index for the market’s 30 largest capped stocks rose 1.89 percent, with 29 tickers gaining and only 1 losing. Most of the biggest gainers this session were banking stocks.

Leading gains was VPB of private lender VPBank, up 5.1 percent. Other private banks, STB of Sacombank, HDB of HDBank and TCB of Techombank were also strong performers, rising 4.4 percent, 3.1 percent and 2.9 percent respectively.

CTG of VietinBank, one of Vietnam’s three biggest state-owned banks by assets, was in second place with 4.4 percent. The other two major banks, BID of BIDV and VCB of Vietcombank rose 3.4 percent and 1.5 percent respectively, while MBB of mid-sized state-owned lender Military Bank added 3.8 percent.

Construction and real estate firms were also some of the biggest gainers this session. VHM of real estate developer Vinhomes added 3.3 percent, NVL of real estate developer Novaland 2.4 percent, and CTD of construction giant Coteccons, 1.7 percent.

Other prominent gainers included SSI of brokerage Saigon Securities Inc., up 2.7 percent, POW of electricity generator PetroVietnam Power, up 2 percent, and MWG of electronics retailer Mobile World, up 1.7 percent.

ROS of real estate developer FLC Faros, the smallest cap on the VN30, was the only ticker in the red this session, down 2.9 percent.

Meanwhile, the HNX-Index for stocks on Hanoi Stock Exchange rose an impressive 3.94 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for stocks on Unlisted Public Companies Market went up 1.02 percent.

Foreign investors turned net buyers on all three bourses to the tune of VND36.34 billion ($1.56 million), with buying pressure mostly on VHM of Vinhomes and two exchange traded funds listed on HoSE.